


Hermione

by Iolaire02



Series: The Butterfly Effect: Character Backstories [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Hermione being Hermione, Pretty Hermione Granger, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-09-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:13:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26375521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iolaire02/pseuds/Iolaire02
Summary: Sometimes, it is hard to be smart and pretty.This is her story, and she won't be the pretty-but-stupid female character she sees in her books.
Series: The Butterfly Effect: Character Backstories [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1916749
Kudos: 8





	Hermione

**Author's Note:**

> I was at one point planning on setting The Butterfly Effect up as a kinda-sorta crossover with Percy Jackson, and this was written with that in mind, which is why Hermione is pretty rather than her canonical average. But then, all my characters are attractive in my head, so.
> 
> I hope you like it!

She knows she tends to overcompensate - she’s pretty and has an unnatural talent for convincing people to do what she wants, but she’s determined to be more than that, and so she works herself to the bone. Her logic is flawed (she believes that people won’t think she’s smart if she puts effort into her appearance, and she cares too much about what others think to choose both - this assumption is not unfounded - so she instead picks the one she would rather be known for.) 

(She’s read too many stories where the female character is beautiful but unintelligent, and she tells herself she won’t be one of them.) By the time she figures out that you can be more than one thing (she chooses Gryffindor over Ravenclaw) it is a habit to shove her intelligence down people’s throats and ignore her looks. Interestingly, she focuses so much that she manages to forget that she is attractive at all, and so she has difficulty believing that others find her attractive. Her lack of confidence in her looks is baffling to her friends when she finally begins to care about them. 

It is her first day of school, and she is wearing a frilly pink dress that compliments her skin and hair and eyes - she has her father’s darker skin and thick, kinky hair, and her mother’s chocolatey eyes. She has a light green backpack - filled with pencils and notebooks and a couple of her favorite books - hanging off her shoulders. 

She makes her way to her classroom, smiles brightly at her teacher, a brunette woman in her mid-thirties, and sits down in the front row, taking out a notebook and a pencil and lining them up on her desk before pulling out a book to read. The classroom slowly fills up, and Hermione puts her book away, turning her attention onto the teacher. She is disappointed when they don’t learn anything besides rules that first day; there are no maths, no books to be read, no spelling words to learn. 

They break for lunch, and Hermione sits at a table near the entrance, pulls out her book and begins eating in between sentences. She looks up, frowning, when someone sits down beside her, sticking their hand between her face and her book. The girl has straight black hair and bright blue eyes; she introduces herself as Isadora, and informs Hermione - rather snootily - that she already knows her name. 

She tries to draw Hermione into a conversation about animals and clothes and art, and when she tries to return to her book, Isadora informs her that she doesn’t have to pretend anymore.

Hermione narrows her eyes at the other girl, who explains - with all the wisdom of a five-year-old - that Hermione is pretty so she can’t  _ possibly _ like reading, but that their teacher isn’t present, so Hermione need not  _ pretend _ to like reading, or learning at all. 

She stares at Isadora in shock, and the other girl seems satisfied that she’s gotten her message across, so she moves onto other topics, including her new puppy, and a beauty pageant she’d nearly won, and how much she loves spending the summer down south, where there’re glorious beaches and quaint little cottages. Hermione tunes her out for the rest of lunch, and when she returns to the classroom, she pulls out her notebook and pencil and book again, and she waits patiently for the teacher to start teaching. 

The next day, Hermione shows up to school with her hair brushed out into a frizzy mass, her brand new school uniform all crisp lines and clean edges. She raises her hand to answer every question the teacher asks, and she reads in her free time, and she works on homework during lunch; when Isadora comes over to her, Hermione watches attentively as the other girl questions the sudden change in hair and clothing, and Hermione tells her that she’d rather be smart than pretty. Isadora finds a seat at another table and Hermione returns to her homework _.  _

Hermione focuses on being the smartest in her year, and in the years above her. She joins the debate club as soon as she is able, and she hones her research skills and practices her presentations in front of her mirror, and performs them for her parents, and when it is finally her turn, she starts speaking, and a strange sense of calm creeps up on her. When she finishes, her audience is nodding along with her, as though she has really managed to convince them of her side of the argument. She doesn’t mind at first, but she notices it happening every  _ single _ time she debates. 

Somehow, she decides, she is actually changing these people’s minds, and it has something to do with that sense of calm. She wants to win fair and square, and so she fights the calm each time she feels it creeping. 

The first time she wins without the calm is after a series of losses, and she is ecstatic when she realises that she’s finally won through her own skills and research. She’s fought a battle against herself, and - what’s more - she’s won. 

(She remembers this feeling, years later, when she fights another battle against herself, and she waves her wand in a simple pattern, and a silvery beaver swims out and circles her in triumph. A sense of achievement fills her.)


End file.
